Following his cancellation of a bilateral meeting with President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Barack Obama may infuriate the Kremlin further by meeting Russian human rights activists, including LGBT rights groups, during his upcoming trip to St Petersburg for the G20 summit.Four Russian non-governmental organizations told BuzzFeed Monday they had been invited to the meeting, scheduled for this Thursday at St. Petersburg’s Crowne Plaza Hotel. The groups include veteran human rights activists Lev Ponomarev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, legal aid NGO director Pavel Chikov, and Coming Out, a St. Petersburg-based LGBT organization. Another local LGBT group, the LGBT Network, is believed to be attending"

"Police in the central Russian city of Kazan filed charges against Dmitry Isakov Thursday for his protest on July 30 this year, his legal team told BuzzFeed. Isakov stood in the city center holding a sign that said, “Being gay and loving gays is normal. Beating gays and killing gays is a crime!”"

Quote :

"Police filed the charges on the basis of a complaint from a teenager in the northern Arkhangelskaya province who had seen Isakov’s protest online. The teenager, Erik Fedoseyev, wrote that he had been forced to write the complaint by his father"

Quote :

"The charges are only the latest consequence Isakov has faced for his protest. He told London’s The Times that four policemen beat him so badly after he left the protest that he had to walk on crutches for 10 days. When his injured knee allowed him to return to work at a local branch of Sberbank, the former Soviet banking behemoth, he learned that he had been abruptly fired."

"Between 15% and 43% of LGBT Americans have experienced discrimination or harassment in the workplace as a result of their sexual orientation. Even more staggering is the proportion of transgender individuals who have had such experiences: 90%.

Is this for real? You can legally be fired for being gay? I had no clue... seeing the fight about gay marriage and stuff, I thought the initial hurdle must have been jumped over ages ago.

But one can be fired just for being gay in over half the country?

So how can the US preach about gay rights to other countries when parts of the US don't even give the very basic rights?

Edit: I am still incensed about this... marriage comes later, this is akin to not even seeing them as humans. Shouldn't that be the first step? How is it different from being fired for being black, or for being Muslim, or for being female?

^Treating this as the serious post that it is, I'd refer you to the fact that the American right has been exporting gay-hating policies that has been documented in Uganda helping lead to the "kill the gays" bill there and now with some of the Russian laws as well. So it's not out of step that those policies get called out by American and international human rights organizations.

"So how can the US preach about gay rights to other countries when parts of the US don't even give the very basic rights?"

You do understand the vast difference between some states in the NC not having LGBT inclusive non-discrimination policies and being arrested or beaten for being gay right? Since you feel so strongly, why not make another thread advocating for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)?

And it's not just the US, a lot of the reporting about it is based on news of or by gay folks in Russia. Is it not fair game for them to try to get their message out about these abuses?

Here's another outcome of the discussion and dust stirred up around the Sochi Olympics and the new Russia policies:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The U.S. Olympic Committee board revised its non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation, a nod to its disapproval of the Russian anti-gay law recently passed by the Olympic host country."

"The USOC event marked 100 days until the first competition in Sochi, where Russia's anti-gay law has drawn ire from gay rights groups.

"It's a violation of human rights,' said Duncan Osbourne, a member of Queer Nation NY which organized the protest. The demonstration was " thrown together" when the group learned about the USOC event two days ago."

Here is what puzzles me. Conservatives in 2013 are back-slapping Russia and Putin for this anti-gay stance, but undoubtedly these are the same conservatives who some 20-30 years ago were all about being as against "The Ruskies" as possible.

NEW YORK -- As the hub of the Soviet Union, Russia was reviled for rights abuses by many U.S. conservatives during the Cold War. Now some are voicing support and admiration as Russian authorities crack down on gay-rights activism.

The latest step drawing praise from social conservatives is a bill signed into law Sunday by President Vladimir Putin that would impose hefty fines for holding gay pride rallies or providing information about the gay community to minors.

"You admire some of the things they're doing in Russia against propaganda," said Austin Ruse, president of the U.S.-based Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. "On the other hand, you know it would be impossible to do that here."

Ruse, whose institute is seeking accreditation at the United Nations, plans to travel to Russia this summer to meet with government officials and civic leaders.

"We want to let them know they do in fact have support among American NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on social issues," he said.

Among others commending Russia's anti-gay efforts was Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality."

Quote :

"In a sign of Russia's evolving stature among some U.S. social conservatives, the Illinois-based World Congress of Families plans to hold its eighth international conference at the Kremlin's Palace of Congresses in Moscow next year."

Quote :

"Stefano Gennarini, a colleague of Austin Ruse's at Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, suggested in a blog post that criticisms of the bill in the West were "hyperbole" and defended it as a reasonable effort to protect children."

Quote :

"He characterized the bill's proposed fines as a tax on public displays of affection by homosexuals, adding that "$155 is hardly unmanageable for homosexuals who want to kiss in public," he wrote."

Quote :

"Scott Lively, a Massachusetts-based evangelical lawyer and activist, conducted a 50-city speaking tour of Russia in 2007, and says the current bill reflects policies that he advocated at the time."

Quote :

"Lively has been sued in U.S. federal court by a Uganda-based gay-rights group, accusing him of persecuting gays in that East African country.

The suit – which Lively is seeking to have dismissed – contends that he was a key figure in consultations in Uganda that produced tough anti-gay legislation in 2009. The initial version of the bill called for the death penalty in some cases of gay sex"

NOM is the group that used to do bus tours to bring people from out of state into states that didn't have anti-gay constitutional amendments, they used to bus to NC to protest our state until the GOP take over finally made it a reality.

Here's one such example where they were trying to use divine magic as best as I could tell, & our larger counter-protest (although we had an unfair advantage, since our people lived in the state, people could come from nearby & they were limited mostly to who had bused in):

I don't consider those people representative of the folks I would identify with as "conservative"... to me seems more "religious right" to me.

yes, there is overlap... i guess my definition of "conservative" trends more to personal freedom... which would include bwning whoever you are attracted to (unless it were harmful to others such as incest, etc)

I wonder what happens in Russia as the number of openly gay European heads of state and legislators goes up. What happens if Luxembourg's new head of state there shows up? Or Belgium's Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo? Or Johanna, Iceland's former Prime Minister?

"Russian Government Spies On LGBT Activists To Portray Them As Part Of Western “Homosexualist Invasion”

Russian officials bugged a private strategy meeting convened by Russian LGBT activists and four major international human rights organizations in October, an intensification of the campaign to clamp down on LGBT rights ahead of the Olympic games in Sochi.

This surveillance was revealed on Nov. 12, when a state television channel broadcast audio from the meeting as part of a program presented as an exposé of the “threat to Russia” posed by the “homosexualists who attempt to infiltrate our country."

Other countries are now offering humanitarian asylum to gay people fleeing Russia. Gays want to get out, not invade.

"Yesterday I reported that a coalition of anti-gay Christian groups would be meeting today in official US Senate office space to discuss how they might copy Russia's anti-gay pogrom here in the United States. After outcry from LGBT groups, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) has kicked them out of the space."

"“It is rather shameful that Senator Kirk has been such a coward,” said one of the participants in the panel scheduled by the World Congress of Families. Update: Kirk’s office responds: “Sen. Kirk doesn’t affiliate with groups that discriminate.”"

German President Joachim Gauck has announced that he will not attend the Sochi Olympics in protests of Russia's anti-LGBT pogrom. ESPN reports:

"Gauck took the decision to protest human rights violations and the harassment of Russian opposition political figures, Der Spiegel reported Sunday. The magazine said the Russian government was informed of his decision last week.""

President Barack Obama sent Russia a clear message about its treatment of gays and lesbians with who he is — and isn't — sending to represent the United States at the Sochi Olympics.

Billie Jean King will be one of two openly gay athletes in the U.S. delegation for the opening and closing ceremonies, Obama announced Tuesday. For the first time since 2000, however, the U.S. will not send a president, former president, first lady or vice president to the Games.

Actually, at the moment they are losing their minds over the Utah judge striking down polygamy laws, and with so few precious brain cells to spare, there is a limited capacity for explosions. Give it time though.

I got into a discussion last night with a pastor in texas who was upset because the story is basically saying (to him at least) that Obama passed over worthy athletes to COMPETE in favor of gays. He also was insinuating that only gays were picked for the this honor, then when I pointed out that there were 3 straight athletes also on the delegation the discussion promptly ended. He was also trying to say that there should be an equal uproar for purposefully picking ANY gay person or to purposefully leaving out gays.

*Make it legal for a bank to close your checking account if they found out you spent money to attend a coworker's lesbian wedding*Allow a bus driver to kick you off because he thinks you look gay*Prevent the child of two dads from attending college*Leave you stranded and sick outside a hospital that refuses to admit gays*Let a landlord evict you for inviting a lesbian friend over for dinner*Force LGBTs back into the closet in order to protect themselves, as though it was the 1950s "

Chechnya opens world's first concentration camp for homosexuals since Hitler's in the 1930s where campaigners say gay men are being tortured with electric shocks and beaten to death

- Chechyna has opened the first concentration camp for homosexuals since Hitler- Prisoners reportedly tortured with electric shocks and some beaten to death - One of those who fled said prisoners were beaten to force them to reveal other members of the gay community - Comes after 100 gay men were detained and three killed in Chechyna last week